Young and Dangerous - Review



In the mid 90’s, Hong Kong’s film industry was not in good shape. With the handover to China imminent, many film makers had relocated to Hollywood, with John Woo of course being the first. One young director was just beginning his career and would, in the coming years, prove to be a trend setter and innovator for Hong Kong cinema. Andrew Lau’s name in recent years has become synonymous with the Infernal Affairs trilogy, the first film of which reinvented the Hong Kong thriller genre. The recent success of the Martin Scorsese Hollywood adaptation of the movie as the Departed has proved the longevity and quality of the original Infernal Affairs. In 1995 Andrew Lau had a few films under his belt including the thriller To Live and Die in Tsim Sha Tsui, but he was yet to have a major hit. The film Young and Dangerous would prove to be a success beyond his wildest dreams. Based on Niu Lo’s graphic novels, it would spawn six sequels and numerous spin offs, mostly centring around the original characters. Though the commercial success of the film cannot be denied, when compared to the cream of Hong Kong gangster cinema from the mid 80s onwards, the quality is sorely lacking. There are many reasons to assert this, but for those of you who are interested in the plotline, here goes.

The film centres around a group of young triad upstarts, led by Nam (Ekin Cheng) under the tutelage of their boss Uncle Bee (Chi Hung Ng). Other members are Chicken (Jordan Chan), Dai Tin Yee (Michael Tse), Chow Pan (Jason Chu) and Pou Pan (Jerry Lamb). They operate through the Hung Hing gang, and are beginning to rise in the ranks. However, when they are assigned an assassination in Macau, things begin to go wrong. Chow Pan is murdered, Chicken is forced in to exile in Taiwan while the rest of the gang are subject to the rules of the triad and are exonerated from the ranks. In the meantime the groups biggest rival Ugly Kwan (Francis Ng) frames Nam and looks to take over leadership from the honourable Mr Chiang (Simon Yam). He succeeds, and this leads to some unsavoury encounters including the murder of Uncle Bee by Kwan. The group decide to wage war on Kwan, and in the messily violent ending get their revenge.

Perhaps the most kinetic and exciting aspect of the film is the plot and narrative, which moves at a breakneck pace, despite comic asides and character development. Hong Kong cinema’s ability in its mature years to create a tight narrative wherein not a second is wasted is second to none among world cinema, and here that is no exception. However comic asides in the film tend to trade creativity for silliness and visual ineptitude. The comic scenes create an incoherence of overall tone, and lack the requisite comedic value to be entertaining. One scene when an extraneous character called the stammerer is forced to eat dozens of pork buns creates a hold up in the action, as do most of the other scenes involving this character do.

The tagline for the movie is ‘A Better Tomorrow for the nineties’, and if there was ever a more inappropriate one this reviewer has yet to hear it. The film lacks all of the things except narrative drive that made A Better Tomorrow such a masterpiece; emotional identification with the characters, charismatic performances and above all aesthetic power. Mawkish sentimentality and pop promo visuals mar the characters moments of bonding, with none of the balanced and enduring imagery and poignancy of emotion on display in A Better Tomorrow. One of the main problems is most of the actors total lack of charisma. In the group only Jordan Chan as Chicken puts in a decent performance, portraying his at first happy go-lucky side melding in to a maturity beyond his character’s years. Ekin Cheng’s wooden and stilted acting style makes you wonder how he became so popular, with only his good looks and cool hairdo carrying anything approaching a performance. It is the older guard who really shine through, with two veterans of the genre showing the youngsters how it’s done. Simon Yam by this time had put in some of the best performances in the action genre, especially in John Woo’s Bullet In the Head. He is sorely underused, and the screen lights up whenever he appears. Francis Ng’s wonderfully laid back but psychotic turn as Kwan, sporting an array of multi coloured suits, is at once comic and tragic. The rest of the cast are disposable and subordinate, with scenes of bonding between the group reduced to drinking games and stupid singalongs.

The biggest disappointment about the movie is the aesthetics. Part pop promo part urban action imagery, the unbalanced feel is irritating. The constantly moving camera in most scenes is disconcerting, and creates a low quality and visually abridged style that probably reflects the way in which the film was shot. Many scenes seem perfunctory and tacked on just to revel in the pop video feeling of the film, such as shots of the group hanging out while tedious proto funk plays on the soundtrack. This contrasts wildly with the lives the characters lead; one of violence and death just around the corner. The filming of such violence is another huge disappointment, with the decision to film action in the jerky-cam style made popular by Wong Kar Wai’s arthouse masterpieces at the time.

It is interesting to compare such scenes with A Better Tomorrow’s poetic ballet and with Wong’s Fallen Angels, a film which came out in the same year as Young and Dangerous. Wong was parodying the typical Woo hero and creating his own style in the action scenes using the jerky-cam. In his scenes despite the visual chaos, framing of the action is constant and built up wonderfully, leaving only a minute of real action which is all that is needed. Young and Dangerous’ appropriation of the technique creates a poor impression of the action and not even a good call for style over content, because the framing is so off in the violent scenes, not allowing for true viewer fulfilment. The end battle is uninventive despite the powerfully tragic death of the films best character, Kwan.

The aspects that help recommend the film are mostly, unfortunately, not given enough screen time. These are the performances of Yam and Ng, and the mildly diverting rock-based soundtrack. Without these it would really be in the doldrums of any age of Hong Kong cinema.The new guard introduced in the film, despite making the sequels and other gangster thrillers, do not compare in any way to the introduction in the 80’s of such icons as Chow Yun Fat. If you want a good representation of mid 90’s Hong Kong cinema reach for those copies of Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, and leave this one on the shelf.

The UK DVD release is by the ever reliable Hong Kong Classics label, released in 1999. The print is in good shape, although it is not restored or remastered, and there is good colour balance. The ratio is 185:1 widescreen, which serves the film well. As for extras, there is the usual from the label: very little. The original theatrical trailer is the only extra.